Indigenous icon Buffy Sainte-Marie’s identity was brought into question by a CBC investigation, her Piapot family says the accusations are “ignorant, colonial – and racist.”
Indigenous icon Buffy Sainte-Marie’s identity was brought into question by a CBC investigation, her Piapot family says the accusations are “ignorant, colonial – and racist.”
The things that’s unclear to me still is if she even knew about it from early on.
Like… I know where I was born but only from what I’ve been told, as I have no memory of that time.
Reality could be much different than my understanding of it.
From what I understand, she was still raised by indigenousparents from that tribe, she still grew up on a reserve with most of the difficulties associated with it. She’s been an activist of indigenous issues for longer than most people on lemmy have been alive.
She still grew up in her tribe’s culture and as such I think her art is still representative of indigenous roots. If anything, it highlights that the hardships of indigenous people aren’t coming from their blood, which would be racist nonsense, but from the shitty position the rest of our society puts them in.
I understand how an actual indigenous artist might be angry in some sort of lost opportunitykind of way, but I also understand that her family must feel really fucking insulted.
What’s the next step? Requiring DNA testing before giving grants money to indigenous artist doesn’t seem like a positive to me and I’m fine with indigenous people doing their own gatekeeping into who’s one of theirs instead of some bureaucrat somewhere.
Supporting more indigenous artists shouldn’t require burning down what she’s done.
@InEnduringGrowStrong @jadero
I’m sorry but a lot of what you just wrote is contradicted by facts in the reporting… Buffy did *not* grow up on a reserve or in her ‘her tribe’s culture’, she grew up as a white girl in new england, and claims of indigenous origin didn’t appear until the 60s along with her growing musical career.
How to respond to or interpret those facts is up to the communities affected.
Well put!
Thanks, I didn’t take the time to get all the info regarding her upbringing, so thanks for correcting me.
True. As a white dude I don’t think my opinion is of any value on the subject. Seeing as her tribe doesn’t seem to care, I’d tend to agree with them.
My understanding is that she was raised in a non-indingenous household in a non-indingenous community from birth through high school and was claiming Indigenous heritage before she was ever adopted into the community of which is now a member.
To me, her marriage certificate says it all. It is a clear and direct refutation of her public claims to ignorance or confusion. Not because she was telling a different story for a different purpose, but because she was acknowledging the reality of her upbringing.
I’m reluctant to suggest that DNA testing is required. Many of the indigenous peoples of at least North America have a long and well documented practice of adopting even adults and former enemies into their families and communities as full fledged members with all the associated privileges, rights, and responsibilities.